As a small business (or any business, for that matter) we live and die by our marketing. Whether that marketing is "formal" and includes advertising and the like or "informal" word-of-mouth, it's still marketing. In this blog your friendly neighborhood author will post a few of his marketing recommendations, and he encourages you to post yours, as well! Your blogger hates marketing. With a passion. It may stem from his life in the corporate world having to deal with marketing groups who were only concerned with how they could spend money ("I don't care about profit - I just need to bring people in with free offers...") - he was in Finance, so you can see the rub - or it may simply be the fact that he's frustrated that his ability to do the job is not immediately evident to everyone. :) Whatever the reason, marketing is NOT high on his list. Or, more appropriately, WASN'T. While your typist still hates marketing, he does realize how important - nay, VITAL - it is to a successful small business, and so he has made it a priority to keep marketing at the front of his stack of things to do. A recent blog entry on your author's favorite blog (Matt Moran's "Notes from the Toolshed") entitled The Best Places For Business and Career got him thinking more about it. Mr. Moran was recommending a "feet on the street" approach - one your blogging consultant is anxious to try - and your typist thought it might be prudent to post a few other "tried and true" methods he was familiar with. Below you will find a number of ways to improve marketing. These, of course, are not limited to small business IT consultants - any business can use these effectively. He also hopes that if you don't find your favorite solution here that you'd be kind enough to post it to benefit the entire readership (all seven...*smile*).

Word-Of-Mouth Perhaps the single most effective type of advertising. Because it's not YOU that is generating this (directly, anyway), it contains much more credibility than, say, a billboard touting your services. Unfortunately this type of marketing requires quite a bit more than simply your creative mind. You actually have to ASK your existing customers to refer clients to you. If you do a great job for your clients many will be more than happy to do it. And the best part: it's FREE. (Note: If you don't do a great job for your clients...you might not want to consider this route.) One of the ways your author entices his clients to spread the word is by noting it on the bottom of every invoice and offering a "bounty" for those that are referred. The invoice is often an overlooked marketing tool. Good clients expect to be billed for the service you render, so the invoice is (generally) not something that leaves them with a bad taste in their mouth. But when they can couple a reasonable bill with the chance to reduce their next bill by $25, $50 or $100 (or however much you offer them for bringing you a fully qualified new client)...bonus! Just like Christmas (okay, maybe not THAT good, but still). Public Relations Think of this as getting your name in lights. Quite effective since it's not coming from you (are you seeing a pattern here...?), but you'd better know what you're doing (or saying) or you can lose prospective business faster than you buy the paper to see your name. Prospects like to know that other people think you know your stuff before they'll buy (since getting prospects to become clients is about perception...), and having your name in print carries a lot of weight. The best way to get this is to call. Talk to folks in the media, offer yourself as a source and deliver, QUICKLY AND ACCURATELY when they ask. I would not count on this as your only source of marketing (the same could be said for any of these methods, but this especially since you're at the beck and call of the media). Case Studies Your author found this entry on his favorite blog (the aforementioned one). Case studies can be an effective tool for "feet on the street" marketing and are useful whether you're a small business looking to find some folks you can move from the "prospect" phase to the "client" phase or an individual looking for a job. Having never done case studies himself your blogger was curious as to how one might go about making these work. As always Mr. Moran was willing to oblige and help. Check out that entry for additional detail. Speaking Engagement Perhaps your author's favorite type, speaking engagements are great ways to allow prospective clients to see that you know what you're talking (literally) about. Fair warning: if you DON'T know what you're talking about it will likely become readily apparent to your audience and you'll lose them, so either bone up on your knowledge or resist the urge to spout nonsense if you're in that boat. Speaking engagements come in a variety of forms, from the thirty-minute speech in front of the local Home Based Business group to full day seminars that you put on yourself. Your blogger has done a number of one+ hour training seminars at a local community college as a way to get his name out in front of people. While many of the folks he presented in front of did not turn into clients some did - revenue while being a ham. Not a bad combination.

Obviously this is not a comprehensive list, nor was it intended to be. There are entire books written about this subject (some good, some not), but hopefully the little piece of real estate your typist calls home was able to provide you with some ideas for marketing your business.